[Onthebarricades] E-protests, Apr-Aug 2008

[Andy]

ON THE BARRICADES:  Global Resistance Roundup, April-August 2008
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/onthebarricades
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance/

*  US:  Obama supporters use network site against him over wiretapping
*  CHINA:  Blogging the Guixou incident
*  SWEDEN:  Uproar over online snooping
*  CANADA:  Online protests grow over copyright bill
*  NORWAY:  Data experts protest in Oslo over Microsoft standard
*  US:  Players protest closure of Disney "virtual world"
*  CANADA:  Net Neutrality protest
*  US, Minnesota:  Protests over censorship on steamboat video page
*  BELARUS:  Websites strike for an hour over censorship laws
*  GLOBAL:  Site runs petition over iPhone format
*  UK:  Protests over snooping technology at BT AGM
*  GLOBAL:  Protesters seek to open up Apple formats
*  CHINA/GLOBAL:  Olympics draw online protests
*  CHINA/GLOBAL:  Hackers redecorate Olympics site
*  INDIA, Bangalore:  Protest against software patents

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9107178&intsrc=news_ts_head

Supporters use Obama's social network to organize protest against him
Group opposes candidate's support of FISA bill
By Heather Havenstein

July 7, 2008 (Computerworld) A group of more than 20,000 supporters of 
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have used his official social 
network to organize an online protest against his stance on legislation set 
to be taken up by the U.S. Senate tomorrow.
The users of the social network MyBarackObama.com have organized a 
grass-roots protest online that opposes Obama's support of the Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act. The act would continue 
the controversial surveillance of e-mail and phone calls by the U.S. 
National Security Agency that started after Sept. 11, 2001, and would likely 
end lawsuits against the telecommunications carriers that participated in 
the program. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the 
legislation last month.
Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and associate professor and director of the 
interactive journalism program at the City University of New York, noted in 
a blog post that the protest could mark an important moment in 
"participatory, self-organized online politics," especially since Obama's 
campaign has built itself on the support of various grass-roots efforts.
"When it's a grassroots organization that makes you — rather than a party — 
and you say you're beholden to them not to special interests and big money 
and lobbyists, well, then you really are beholden to them," Jarvis noted. 
"If they rise up from within to tell you that they don't like what you're 
doing — when they use your own organizational tools to do that — then I'd 
say you ignore them at your peril. Live by the crowd, die by the crowd."
Jarvis added that it will be interesting to see what type of power these 
self-organized groups wield if Obama ascends to the White House.
"Will his supporters at MyBarackObama continue to use these tools to 
influence him and government? And will he have to listen because he is 
beholden to them?" Jarvis asked.
Obama's campaign did not respond today to a request for comment on the 
online protest. However, the senator said in a blog post Thursday that the 
ability to monitor individuals who want to attack the U.S. is a "vital 
counter-terrorism tool" and that he believes it is necessary to keep 
Americans safe.
"The truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an 
important reason why this bill is better than previous versions," Obama 
wrote. "No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on 
the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and 
sustained engagement of American citizens."
Obama went on to note that "when citizens join their voices together, they 
can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. ... I cannot 
promise to agree with you on every issue. But I do promise to listen to your 
concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to 
change the country."
Patrick Ruffini, a blogger at TechPresident, noted that the online protest 
is a natural evolution in any open networked system that operates in the 
political space.
"It's now a truism that when presented with an open platform, users will 
hack it to serve their purposes, not necessarily those of the sponsor," 
Ruffini said. "Many times, those two sets of priorities are intertwined 
(e.g. supporters' desire to get involved matched with a campaign's need for 
volunteers), though in this case, they weren't."
If the campaign censored the group, it would endanger the financial support 
and volunteers that the online push has helped to generate, he noted.
"Also, I suspect if you asked them privately, they'll say they love that 
this is happening," Ruffini added. "Why? Because the controversy and 
meta-coverage drives more people to use the tools."

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijing/archive/2008/07/02/can-the-propaganda-machine-filter-the-steam.aspx

Posted Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:01 PM
Guizhou Riots: How much steam can the machine filter?
Jonathan Ansfield
     Say somewhere in China, during the Olympics, mobs of citizens go 
spastic over some case of official malfeasance, or mishandled public 
concerns thereof. Not some quibble over sovereignty or state security (like 
Tibet or terrorism) which turns public opinion against "anti-China" forces. 
We’re talking a squarely domestic social crisis. Will word of unrest filter 
out to the wired masses elsewhere around the country? Will Netizens clamor 
in curiosity and anger? Will their attempts to access information and engage 
in debate be stymied?
   Will this make them even angrier? Will they find cracks in the vaunted 
Great Firewall of China? Will senior leaders react fast enough to dispel the 
uproar? Will a lot of observers still be stewing for some time afterward? 
Will the 20,000 to 30,000 foreign journalists in China for the Games be all 
over the story? The answer to all these questions is likely to be yes, if we’re 
to judge by reactions to violent convulsion in Guizhou this past weekend.
   On Sunday night, I stepped into my favorite pub in Beijing to find it 
dead quiet but for Little Wang, the 22-year-old exec barman. Wang’s a 
scrawny migrant from the south who mixes a mean mojito with an unflagging 
social conscience (he appeared on this blog in a previous post), and it does 
not take much to press his buttons. Little Wang was literally stomping mad 
over the mass protest in China’s deep-south a day earlier.
    Wang had first read about the incident in Weng’an county on popular 
Chinese Web forums, particularly Maopu. People were up in arms over the 
death of a 16-year-old girl who drowned in a river a week earlier. Police 
ruled her death a suicide; her family suspected she was raped and murdered. 
Rumors spread that two young men she was with were somehow related to the 
county party secretary and a police station chief, and that the girl’s 
uncle, a local teacher, was beaten to death outside public security 
headquarters where he pressed her case (turned out he was beaten but not 
dead, as later revealed by a Hong Kong TV interview with him from his 
hospital bed).
    On Saturday afternoon, a group of 300 people led by family, friends, and 
classmates descended on the police and government HQs. The crowd eventually 
swelled to as many as 30,000 people. A standoff with riot police spiraled 
out of control. In seven hours of fiery bedlam, people smashed, looted, and 
torched police cars and government offices, injuring more than 100 police. 
(The blog ESWN carries lots of pix)
     Suspicious death cases with police links can easily stir moments of 
national reckoning over class barriers in China today, as they long have 
race relations in the States  - take the case of Sun Zhigang in 2003 or Lu 
Haixiang in 2004. Little Wang was plenty steamed about the rumors of foul 
play in Weng’an. The sentiment was echoed by his understudy Xiao Huang, who 
confessed to being “dizzy” from hearing Little Wang’s rant but added: “I 
myself have never thought anything good of China’s police. They’re all 
corrupt scum of the earth.”
    What really riled Little Wang, though, was his confusion about the case. 
Why were people in Weng'an angry? Were their suspicions true? Why didn’t the 
government address them properly? Efforts to answer his questions only left 
him more frustrated. Wang:

“…All night and morning, I was clicking on posts about it. First it was 
there. Then it was gone. Then it was there again. Then gone. Every few 
minutes it was being deleted, sometimes every few seconds. The site had 
orders to block it. That was obvious. But they couldn’t keep up. Every time 
they did, we Netizens got angrier and angrier.”


      Little Wang gave up surfing on Tianya, the go-to Web forum in China 
for discussion of social injustices. “Tianya’s too serious!” he scoffed. In 
fact, though the editors were scrubbing out posts about Weng’an, Tianya 
groupies were masking their posts under oblique headers, sometimes very 
oblique headers. Roland Soong, the Hong Kong-based uber-blogger behind ESWN, 
detailed this phenomena (see comment 030), which was later covered in The 
Wall Street Journal. Wrote Soong on Sunday evening:

"For example, the first item says that oveseas media are paying a great of 
attention of the lives of people living in the plateau of the Yunnan-Guizhou 
area.  The second item says that the people of X'an (Guizhou) are lighting 
an extra large sacred flame to celebrate the Beijing Olympics.  The third 
item just says, "Delete this!!  Your mother's c*nt!"  The fourth item says 
that "when the army arrives in southwestern China, I think something big 
will happen!  I believe that our troops have conscience."  The fifth item 
says that the anti-American posts from the anti-American warriors have all 
met death -- the revolution has not yet succeeded and our comrades need to 
keep working.  What was that last one?  The term "American" is being used 
for "Chinese"!"

     I explained Soong’s insights to Little Wang. He said such invention was 
also evident on Maopu, a buzz-driven entertainment site which targets a 
younger audience (the name means “pouncing cat”). He took a seat at my 
laptop and scrolled way down the site in search of links on the Weng’an 
rioting. Nothing. Little Wang sprung to his feet in a fit of accusatory 
stuttering:

    “You see! Gone again!”

     By this time the easiest info to find in Chinese was by far the 
official Xinhua new agency’s initial two-graph report, which came out after 
the news proliferated in the forums and on Chinese news sites outside the 
mainland. Little Wang, for his part, was surprised Xinhua would report the 
incident at all. “You must be kidding? All we can get is Xinhua?” Part of it 
read:

"During the process of reception by the relevant government officials, 
certain people instigated the masses who did not know the truth to attack 
the county public security bureau, county government and county party 
offices.  A small number of criminal elements vandalized the offices and set 
fire to many offices and vehicles."

     ESWN provided a link to the Xinhua piece that appeared on the obscure 
site of a Fujian-based trade weekly sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of 
Agriculture. Click on the link now and the page is blank. But at the time, 
the text was accompanied by an unattributed picture – probably not Xinhua’ - of a throng of thousands gathered outside Weng’an government buildings.
     “Doesn’t look like a ‘small number’ to me,” cracked Wang.
     My shaggy mixologist friend was only further irked by what official 
attempts to paint people protesters as a herd of know-nothings incited by 
misinformation and ‘criminal elements’, even if, by many accounts, this was 
partly the case. “How are they supposed to know any better, when the 
government conceals everything from them?”
     A lot of Chinese Netizens felt that way, and over the next couple days 
they let the government know it. Not that there were tons of open venues for 
dissent. Whereas threads of discussion were cut off too fast to engender 
lasting debate on many Indies forums, those of central media appeared to be 
less carefully vetted in the first two days. Comments there predominately 
cast the protesters as “rights defenders” up against corrupt local cadres 
and police.
     It’s not that surprising, in this day and age, that central government 
media would allow such scrutiny of a small-town mess. This is how the 
Communist Party distances itself from its problems. Still, it’s interesting 
to see how -- as the provincial and central government began to investigate 
the matter and establish their official version of events -- their online 
departments moved into a guiding role. They became mother ships, swallowing 
up a good proportion of the virtual space for critique of the government. 
Soong analyzes this stratagem of co-option in uniquely Chinese political 
terms, both traditional and technocratic. “Hydrological engineering”, he 
dubs it:

"Yes, HYDROLOGICAL ENGINEERING!  Many of the current crop of central 
government leaders are technocrats with engineering background.  As such, 
they must understand that public opinion is water that can carry the ship as 
well as turn it over. [per the dynastic conception of the imperial mandate 
to rule]  The point about hydrological engineering is not to build dams to 
hold the water back because there will be a catastrophic dam break one day 
that might bring down the entire system.  Instead, the point should be about 
controlling and redirecting the awesome power of nature in less harmful ways 
down selected channels."
"In the case of the Weng'an mass incident, the major portals were deleting 
the related posts as quickly as possible.  At Tianya Forum, it was estimated 
that a Weng'an-related post has an average lifetime of 15 seconds before 
being deleted by the administrators.  That was supposed to be a record 
speed.  The same thing was happening at Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu, etc.  So 
this was building massive dams all over the map which builds up a tremendous 
pressure.  Where was the pressure release point?  You may be amazed that it 
was over at the Xinhua Forum.  The webmasters posted the official Xinhua 
news story on the forum.  That does not help in itself because Chinese 
netizens think that this Xinhua story was vague and misleading.  However, 
the webmasters allowed the comments to run freely.  This meant that the 
Xinhua posts became the meeting points of all those who want to talk about 
the Weng'an incident but could not do so elsewhere.  Although that post did 
not contain any news information (such as photos and videos), it was a place 
for people to vent their outrage.  As a result, Xinhua got a record-setting 
number of visitors who were very appreciative.  Is this the plan for the 
future?  You'll find out at the next mass incident (and there will be 
many)."

     On the independent forums earlier this week, an abundance of anonymous 
posts have emerged from "authoritative local sources" who dispel rumors of 
official meddling and blame the dust-up on small band of rowdies. Soong, who 
has translated quite a few of those posts, notes that Netizens do not trust 
them:

"On one hand, there is the legendary "50-cent gang."  These are supposed to 
be professional Internet writers who get paid 0.50 RMB for every post 
favorable to the government position.  When yet another version of the 
Weng'an mass incident gets published as being the ultimate truth, the author 
is accused of being a member of the "50-cent gang" who is trying to confuse 
the public.  Indeed, if you read through enough versions, you will probably 
throw up your hands and decide that you don't know what the truth is 
anymore.  Instead, you change your investigation to questioning the motives 
of the people who are producing these versions."
"On the other hand, there is the legendary "Internet special agent (网特)." 
These are supposed to be professional spies who are paid by anti-China 
hostile forces to publish unfavorable information about China.  For example, 
some of the posts mentioned that the People's Liberation Army has been 
dispatched to Weng'an with tanks and artillery, with the hint of a 
Tiananmen-like massacre to follow.  Immediately, the other netizens reacted 
by pointing that these posts are coming from "Internet special agents."  The 
netizens want to draw a very clear line: they may be protesting against what 
is happening in Weng'an but they will not serve the purpose of the 
anti-China hostile forces.  This is very clear."

     By Monday, local authorities had detained or questioned as many as 300 
rioters, and ordered a new inquest into the girl’s death. But the results of 
the review appeared a foregone conclusion. Three days after my encounter 
with Little Wang, state media across the country were leading on the file 
compiled by Guizhou’s Communist Party-run media – the Guizhou Daily, Guizhou 
Television, and the Guizhou Metropolis Daily – which took on key questions 
in the case point by point. It stood faithfully by the provincial government 
findings that the young men with the dead girl had no family connections to 
officials and had done no wrong - the girl had simply jumped into the river. 
The file was broken down into a series of “inquiries” in The Beijing News, a 
progressive tabloid. At the top of the Maopu message board, the same body of 
information was packaged as “rumor” and “fact”.
     Maopu was back to its perplexing ways on Thursday. One featured link on 
the Weng'an protest poked a number of holes in the eyewitnesses accounts 
from the dead girl's friends. But the topmost link turned the problem of 
public mistrust in the case on its head: "Why didn't anyone doubt the 
rumors?" begged the title.
     One reason is officials in Weng'an did too little, too late to address 
people's suspicions. So argued the Jinan-based Qilu Evening News, far from 
Guizhou in Shandong province, in an editorial on Tuesday:

"In the Internet age, if public information lags in the slightest, it can 
leave room for rumors to be broadcast. This is a reality that must be 
confronted."

     Arguably, senior leaders did react much faster and more attentively 
than they might have in the past. The provincial government sprung to 
action, backed by orders from Chinese leader Hu Jintao. Guizhou Party 
Secretary Shi Zongyuan, formerly chief of the state press and publication 
regulator, was in Weng'an within 48 hours of the incident.
     Shi ultimately pinned the riot on a "criminal elements" with "ulterior 
motives" - not a popular statement at all, as noted. But at a "public 
forum", according to the Guizhou Daily, he also did acknowledge "social 
conflicts that had accumulated over time", "tense relations between cadres 
and the masses", and "people's dissatisfaction toward our work".

   But the remarks were airbrushed when compared to unpublished comments Shi 
made behind the scenes at a meeting of 100 local officials. Blogging For 
China translated the intriguing account of a Guizhou journalist named Wu 
Hanpin, who apparently was in attendance and later blogged on the exchange:

"After listening to the comments of those attending, Shi Zongyuan said: Weng’an 
county has always had tense relations between cadres and citizens, police 
and citizens. Weng’an county has repeatedly had violent incidents of 
robbery, murder, and rape which have gone unsolved. The people who live here 
lack a sense of security. The failures of the county public security 
ministry has made everyone in the local community angry. He advised that 
those responsible for county public security should be “dismissed from 
 class”. Hearing this, all of the local political leaders (members of the 
people’s congress, political consultative conference) clapped in approval."
      That page of Wu's blog now appears to be blocked.


     By the end of the week, Little Wang was not impressed by the Guizhou 
government's moves to resolve the issue fairly. He'd read a dizzying array 
of accounts and arguments, from Wu's to those on Maopu. He still believed it 
highly plausible that the dead girl was raped and murdered; that the two 
young men she'd been with were related to top Weng'an officials; and that 
the protesters were instigated to commit violence.
     He did not believe the provincial government was going over the heads 
of Weng'an officials to conduct an independent probe into the death or the 
riots. "Even if they sack a few officials, it's just a show," he concluded. 
"But how am I to really know?"

http://worldreport.cjly.net/2008/07/from-us-to-sweden-eavesdropping.html

Saturday, July 05, 2008
"From US to Sweden, Eavesdropping Legislation Causes Online Uproar," Weely 
NetPulse, July 4, 2008.
its not just Americans who aren't buying into the idea of 'sacrificing 
liberty for security'

>From the United States to Sweden, lawmakers approving government 
eavesdropping legislation has caused an online upheaval.

In the US, Senator Barack Obama's website is being used by his own 
supporters to protest his switch on telecom immunity. TechPresident has done 
a phenomenal job of covering the MyBO group, Senator Obama - Please Vote NO 
on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right, so we'll let them take it from here.

But its not just Americans who aren't buying into the idea of 'sacrificing 
liberty for security'...Swedes are causing an online uproar over lawmakers 
voting 'yes' to eavesdropping legislation as well.

The Swedish FRA Act, passed two weeks ago, will allow the National Defense 
Radio Establishment to eavesdrop on all cross-border emails, phone calls and 
faxes without a court order. A poll revealed that only 31% of Swedes are for 
the FRA Act.

Expressen, a Swedish tabloid newspaper, is responsible for creating the 
email script that has been used to send 6.6 million emails to flood the 
inboxes of the 143 Swedish lawmakers who recently voted 'yes' what has been 
called "the most far-reaching eavesdropping plan in Europe."

As one blogger put it, "The surveillance and information gathering will 
become the national standard...Privacy will be a historical artifact."

Our take - POL has been saying for a long time that somewhere, someday, 
online privacy issues will merge with online activism to create a firestorm. 
6.6 million emails is a lot of emails - 6.6 emails in a country with a 
population of 9 million is a firestorm.

It will happen again and again, in lots of places about lots of issues.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/63637.html

Swedish Eavesdropping Law Ignites Uproar
07/01/08 8:50 AM PT
A bill passed two weeks ago by Sweden's government has citizens there 
flooding lawmakers' in-boxes with more than 1 million protest e-mails. The 
law allows Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment to eavesdrop on all 
cross-border e-mail, phone conversations and faxes.
Swedes have bombarded lawmakers with more than 1 million e-mails protesting 
the country's new eavesdropping law, adding to the growing public outcry 
over the measure, an official said Monday.
The contentious bill allows officials to eavesdrop on all cross-border 
e-mail and telephone traffic. The government plans to implement it in 
January.
The bill was passed June 18 in a 142-138 vote despite nationwide protests 
that are still continuing.
The Opposition
Critics say the law will encroach on privacy and jeopardize civil liberties. 
Supporters claim it is needed to fight international crime and terrorism.
Parliamentary spokesperson Christina Green said protesters had sent 1.1 
million e-mails to lawmakers by Monday afternoon, after the Expressen 
tabloid on Sunday launched an online campaign against the law.
The youth wings of the governing coalition parties oppose the law. The main 
opposition Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin said she would move to 
annul it if her party returns to power in the 2010 election.
The lack of support for the legislation is a setback for Sweden's 
center-right government, which has seen its popularity decline in recent 
months.
The legislation gives Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment the 
right to scan all phone calls, e-mails and faxes crossing Sweden's borders, 
without a court order.
Currently, e-mail and phone surveillance in the Nordic country of 9.1 
million, known for openness and transparency, requires a court order if 
police suspect a crime.
However, the intelligence agency is allowed to spy on airborne signals, such 
as radio and satellite traffic, without special permission.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256171/Canada_Online_Protests_Grow_Over_Copyright_Bill

Canada: Online Protests Grow Over Copyright Bill
Posted Jun 15, 2008 by  Bob Ewing in Internet | 2 comments | 364 viewsNext 
in Internet
Inside the Virtual World of Rocketon, Where Avatars Surf the Web With You
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A Facebook group opposing the copyright legislation gains 7,000 new members. 
Emails fly leading to this query: Will iPod users force the next Canadian 
federal election?
The digital protest over the Canadian federal government’s proposed changes 
to the copyright law is growing by leaps and bounds. Internet and email 
campaigns are springing up in opposition to the changes that are being put 
forward by Canada’s Conservative government.

One Facebook group that was started by Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa 
internet law professor saw its membership rise to 48,000 when over 7,000 
people joined within 24 hours of the legislation’s introduction.

Messages on Friday by group members indicate that they were taking political 
action in an effort to prevent the controversial legislation from becoming 
law.

"I just phoned the Liberal Party of Canada and said I would vote Liberal for 
the first time in my life if they brought down the government over this 
bill," Ray Klassen wrote.

"I've requested an in person meeting with Dawn Black, MP for Coquitlam/New 
Westminster. I live only 1 minute from her office up on Austin," wrote Brian 
B of Vancouver.

Bill C-61 was introduced on Thursday by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and 
Heritage Minister Josée Verner, is designed to update Canada's copyright 
rules and bring it in line with the country's obligations under the World 
Intellectual Property Organization treaty signed more than a decade ago.

The bill spells out Canadians' rights with respect to digital copying of 
content, granting permissions to make copies of books, photographs, music 
and other media.

The bill does have supporters as there are a number of entertainment 
industry groups, including the Entertainment Software Association of Canada 
and the Canadian Recording Industry Association, who praised it for 
proposing methods of stopping illegal piracy of copyrighted works.

The main concern about this bill and what is behind the protests is the 
bill's anti-circumvention clause, which would allow copyright holders to 
place digital locks on content and thus prevent copies from being made. 
Those who oppose the legislation say the clause invalidates all of the other 
rights granted, thus heavily skewing the bill in favour of copyright 
holders.

Regional sub groups of the original Facebook site are also active and each 
has hundreds of members.

Copyright For Canadians is a website run by the Ottawa-based Canadian 
Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic, and the San Francisco-based 
Electronic Frontier Foundation and many of the Facebook groups refer members 
to this site which has an automated system that allows visitors to send 
protest e-mails to their respective MPs. As of Friday afternoon, more than 
3,200 messages had been sent.

"What we've seen over the past 24 hours has been nothing short of 
remarkable," Geist said. "Literally tens of thousands of Canadians are 
speaking out with an element of shock that the government would introduce 
this legislation in the manner that it has."

"Besides voting, I've never taken action politically, but I've now got a 
face-to-face meeting set up with Guy Lauzon, our MP for 
[Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry] on the 24th," the reader wrote. "He'll 
know first-hand that this bill, if passed, will cause him to lose votes."

"Whether it does or does not pass, the fact remains that the party and 
whatever candidate happens to be in my riding will receive one less vote 
come the next election,” Robert Phillips says he has campaigned on behalf of 
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and was a former executive of the Brock 
University Conservative Club, wrote.

Rallies are being called for with the Ontario riding of Guelph, where a 
by-election must be called by September. Brenda Chamberlain, a Liberal, 
currently holds the riding but the Conservatives have targeted her seat.

"You're going to see the concern and protests build over the summer rather 
than go away," Geist said.

Parliament will soon take a summer break so the bill is not going to proceed 
until it resumes, the bill will receive its second reading and then be sent 
off to a committee for closer scrutiny. There is speculation that the 
Conservatives could make it a confidence bill, meaning that if opposition 
parties voted it down, they would force an election.

"Wouldn't it be funny if an election was fought over iPods?" wrote Charles 
Troster of Vancouver.

http://article.wn.com/view/2008/04/09/Computer_experts_protest_in_Oslo_against_Microsoft_document_/

Computer experts protest in Oslo against Microsoft document format as world 
standard Star Tribune
OSLO, Norway - Roughly 60 data experts staged a rare and noisy street 
demonstration in downtown Oslo on Wednesday to protest Norway joining 
adoption of Microsoft Corp.'s document format as the international standard. 
Last week, the International Standards Organization narrowly voted in favor 
of using Microsoft's Office Open XML, or OOXLM, format as a world standard.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080509-1345-ca-disney-vmkprotest.html

Players protest closing of Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom

By Ryan Nakashima
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:45 p.m. May 9, 2008
LOS ANGELES – OMG! VMK is going away.
A group that has invested three years in playing a free online game called 
Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom is upset that the house that made Mickey 
Mouse is pulling the plug on the world.

The game, launched in the summer of 2005 to promote the 50th anniversary of 
Disneyland, attracted thousands of fans who created more than 1 million 
avatars who trade virtual items and play games to earn credits.
On Saturday morning, members of the group plan to protest the game's 
shuttering around the entrance to Disneyland in Anaheim. The game is set to 
close on May 21 at 10 p.m. Pacific time.
“I've put three years of my life into this,” said Andrew Lawson, a 
16-year-old from Sun City, Calif.
Lawson said he plays the game 20 hours a week and has developed friendships 
with other players that can't be replaced elsewhere.
According to VMK.com rules, players are not allowed to reveal their real 
identities, e-mail addresses or phone numbers as a safety measure – rules 
enforced by staff monitors. The game is only open when moderated, from 7 
a.m. to 10 p.m. Pacific time.
Scott Lawson, Andrew's father, said his family stayed at the Disneyland 
Resort three times, spending about $2,000 each time, to obtain a virtual hat 
based on Disney's “Lilo & Stitch” series.
“We're saddened and upset at how Disney handled this whole thing,” said the 
45-year-old traveling salesman.
Walt Disney Co. spokesman John Spelich, a vice president in the Walt Disney 
Internet Group, said the company decided to close the site because it was 
promotional and he encouraged players to go to other Disney virtual worlds.
DisneyFairies.com had nearly 6 million avatars created in its “Pixie Hollow” 
game, while Disney's “ToonTown Online” had more than 20 million, the company 
said.
Combined with “Pirates of the Caribbean Online” and “Club Penguin,” more 
than 40 million avatars have been created in other Disney worlds. Portions 
of each site were free.
“You'd rather do anything in the world than disappoint a guest,” Spelich 
said. “But in this particular instance, this promotional site is going to 
come to an end. We have invited those players who like features of VMK to 
sample the other ways we're offering to engage with Disney online.”

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/05/26/tech-rally.html?ref=rss

Internet protesters to descend on Ottawa
Hundreds expected to call for end to traffic interference by major ISPs
Last Updated: Monday, May 26, 2008 | 5:03 PM ET Comments50Recommend139
By Peter Nowak CBC News
Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger will be one of the speakers at the net neutrality 
rally at Parliament Hill on Tuesday.
Hundreds of protesters are expected to descend on Parliament Hill on Tuesday 
to urge government action on keeping the internet free from interference by 
service providers.
The net neutrality rally will draw together politicians, labour unions, 
consumer groups and internet activitists, with protesters being bused in 
from Toronto, Montreal and Chatham, Ont., the home base of its organizer, 
TekSavvy Solutions Inc.
"We're expecting between 300 and 500 [protesters], and if it's any more than 
that, we'll consider it an amazing success," said Rocky Gaudrault, chief 
executive officer of TekSavvy, an ISP with about 35,000 customers.
At issue are the actions of big ISPs such as Bell Canada Inc. and Rogers 
Communications Inc., who have been slowing down the internet speeds of 
customers using certain applications, such as peer-to-peer software used for 
file sharing.
Bell and Rogers, Canada's two largest ISPs, as well as others including 
Videotron Ltee and Cogeco Inc., say they need to slow such traffic down — or 
"throttle" it — because a small percentage of customers are abusing these 
peer-to-peer applications and causing network congestion, thus affecting the 
speeds of the majority.
Protesters want ISPs to discontinue throttling
Protesters will urge Industry Minister Jim Prentice and the Canadian 
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to enact rules that 
prevent ISPs from discriminating between different types of traffic, and to 
force more transparency from the providers. They will also ask that ISPs be 
forced to provide the speeds they are offering and discontinue their 
throttling practices.
Groups scheduled to take part in the rally include:
The National Union of Public and General Employees.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The Campaign for Democratic Media.
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
The Council of Canadians.
The NDP's digital spokesman Charlie Angus and Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger are 
also scheduled to speak.
Smaller ISPs, including TekSavvy, which rents portions of Bell's network in 
order to provide customers with access, will be represented by the Canadian 
Association of Internet Providers.
CAIP recently complained to the CRTC that Bell is being anti-competitive by 
expanding its throttling practices to its members, and asked for an 
emergency cease-and-desist order.
The regulator on May 14 declined to issue the order, but the next day opened 
up the larger issue for debate and expects to make a ruling on ISP 
throttling practices by the fall.
The rally begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday. CBCnews.ca will be covering 
the protest, beginning with bus departures in Toronto at 4 a.m. ET on 
Tuesday morning.

http://salem-news.com/articles/june082008/delta_queen_6-7-08.php

Jun-08-2008 23:21
Deleted Comments on Youtube Video Raises Storm of Protest
Commentary by Franz Neumeier for Salem-News.com
The Delta Queen is the last traditional steamboat carrying overnight 
passengers on America’s inland waterways.
Photos courtesy: save-the-delta-queen.org

(MUNICH, Germany) - The deletion of negative comments on a Youtube video has 
raised a storm of protest among supporters of the Mississippi River 
steamboat Delta Queen. The video in question was posted under the user name 
"OberstrMN08". It shows Representative James Oberstar of Minnesota, Chairman 
of the House's Transportation Committee, speaking on the floor of the House 
of Representatives on April 24, 2008.
In the speech, he explains why he is vehemently opposing proposed 
legislation that would exempt the Delta Queen from technical provisions of 
the 1966 Safety at Sea Act.
Numerous viewers submitted comments to the video claiming that many of Mr. 
Oberstar’s statements were untruthful and that he was trying to manipulate 
his fellow members of Congress into voting his way. Within a few days, 
OberstrMN08 deleted all comments, and refuses to allow any further comments.
Delta Queen supporters are accusing Rep. Oberstar of violating their right 
to freedom of speech while claiming the same right liberally for himself by 
posting the video in the first place. But they say Rep. Oberstar has not 
taken into account the accepted rules of the Internet. Just hours after the 
comments had been deleted, they posted their comments again on a different 
website, steamboats.org/forum/blog.php.
This site also features an electronic document showing a print-out of the 
original, now deleted comments at Youtube. Another website, 
save-the-delta-queen.org, has posted a detailed analysis of Rep. Oberstar's 
speech where Save the Delta Queen campaign member Franz Neumeier pinpoints 
what are, in his opinion, manipulative and even untrue statements in Rep. 
Oberstar’s remarks.
Says Neumeier: "Rep. Oberstar might be able to betray his constituents. He 
might be able to be untruthful to his fellow Representatives in the House 
because they not interested in any details. But condoning the deletion of 
comments on a video posted by his campaign organization on a public 
video-sharing platform like Youtube is really too much. This is an absolute 
no-go on the Internet."
"Manipulation" and "inaccuracy" are words that can be found again and again 
in comments and statements by Delta Queen supporters when they talk about 
this speech of Rep. Oberstar in the House. Travis Vasconcelos writes in his 
comment at steamboats.org: "
Mr. Oberstar is neglecting to accept the fact the United States Coast Guard 
did in fact certify the Delta Queen to operate for the 2008 season and has 
had multiple inspections where she does pass all necessary safety 
regulations as an overnight passenger carrying riverboat." and continues: 
"If Mr. Oberstar wants us to accept his assumption the Sultana [a steamboat 
of the Civil War era; editor's note] and the Delta Queen are of the exact 
same technological era, do we not have to accept for fact a 747 and anything 
the Wright Brothers flew are utilizing the same technology and therefore 
should be shunned for their danger potential. Are we to believe there have 
been no technological advances in any area ever?"
The Delta Queen is the last traditional steamboat carrying overnight 
passengers on America’s inland waterways. For that reason she has been 
designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1966, she was inadvertently 
caught in the technical provisions of the Safety at Sea Act—a piece of 
legislation that was intended to cover ocean-going ships, not riverboats. 
Recognizing the difference between boats that operate on rivers, within 
yards of the shore, and ships that sail the high seas, Congress established 
an exemption for the Delta Queen in 1968. Since then, the exemption has been 
renewed nine times, in virtually every case by near-unanimous votes in both 
the House and the Senate.
Without congressional action, the current exemption will expire on November 
1st 2008. Bipartisan legislation to extend the exemption, H.R. 3852, was 
introduced by Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) on October 16th 2007. 
Currently it has 31 cosponsors. The bill remains in the House Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure because Committee Chairman James Oberstar 
of Minnesota refuses to release it to the floor.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/214869,belarus-internet-news-sites-shut-down-to-protest-new-press.html

Belarus Internet news sites shut down to protest new press controls
Posted : Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:27:01 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Internet (Technology)

Minsk - A group of independent Belarusian Internet news sites shut down 
Wednesday to protest new laws tightening government control over the media. 
More than a dozen websites - one of the few sources of 
independently-reported news in the authoritarian former Soviet republic - 
placed a black banner on their home pages for one hour and disabled links, 
the Belapan news agency reported.
The temporary shutdown making the sites unusable was "a symbol of the 
funeral of press rights in Belarus", according to Olga Babak, spokeswoman 
for the Belarusian Association of Journalists.
Belarus' parliament on Tuesday passed into law media regulations extending 
an obligation to register with the government, and so submit to state 
censorship, to IP owners and web site operators.
Belarusian law prior to the vote imposed strict controls on most media 
including mandatory jail terms for criticising the government, but had 
omitted mention of the Internet - a loophole exploited by independent media 
attempting to report news different from the state- controlled media.
Aleksander Statikevich, editor of the independent newspaper Solidarnost 
predicted further crack downs against the press, saying the government "will 
not listen to journalists in an case. The authorities know exactly what they 
are doing."
Belarusian President Oleksander Lukashenko in recent months has cracked down 
on Belarus' embattled independent media.
Pressure tactics have included detentions and arrests of reporters, tax 
audits of independent media companies, and even mass theft of newspaper 
issues critical of the government.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2008/07/02/what-happened-to-ruinediphone-com.aspx

What happened to ruinediphone.com?
Posted: July 02, 2008, 9:19 AM by DrewHasselback
Technology
What has happened to www.ruinediphone.com?
This is (or rather, was) the website where irate iPhone fans could sign an 
online petition protesting the data plans Rogers Wireless will offer 
customers when the iPhone is launched in Canada on July 11.
UPDATE: James Hallen, the Web site's creator, said the outage was due to his 
old hosting company "pulling the plug with no reasons."
According to Mr. Hallen, the new server is up and angry potential iPhone 
customers can start signing onto his online petition by mid-afternoon on 
Wednesday.
Drew Hasselback and David George-Cosh

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/16/bt_phorm_protest/

Phorm protestors picket BT AGM
Walking the streets to protest against data pimping
By John Oates → More by this author
Published Wednesday 16th July 2008 11:54 GMT

Take the hassle out of finding your next job, click here The Register 
presents: The Evolving Security Landscape. Watch online!
Attendees at BT's Annual General Meeting today will have to run the gauntlet 
of an anti-Phorm protest outside the event at the Barbican, London.
Protestors will hear from Baroness Miller, who is tomorrow meeting the Home 
Office to outline her objections to BT's trial of the snooping technology 
without informing users.

BT conducted two trials with Phorm which gave the former spyware company 
access to thousands of BT customers' browsing history without telling them. 
Phorm aims to use anonymised browsing information to sell more targeted 
advertising. BT insists the secret trial was legal, even though it appears 
to breach UK wiretap laws.
The secret trial came to light when Reg reader Stephen noticed his browser 
making unauthorised connections with a server he didn't recognise. He 
contacted BT and was told the server had nothing to do with them and he had 
probably picked up some malware. BT denied having done any deal with Phorm, 
although Phorm admitted the server was theirs and was being used to collect 
browsing information.
Despite legal concerns, the Information Commissioner's Office, the Home 
Office and several police forces have all passed the buck when asked if they 
would investigate the trials. Several other ISPs other than BT have shown an 
interest in the technology and potential new revenue stream.
But campaigner Alex Hanff, who helped organise the protest, has a meeting 
later today with City of London police. Hanff will hand over a dossier of 
evidence to police so they can consider whether charges should be brought.
Alex Hanff told the Register: "It's not quite as busy as we hoped. But we've 
had a very positive reaction from shareholders and have been handing out 
flyers. We've got at least one person inside the meeting who might get to 
ask a question."
An e-petition on the 10 Downing Street website has already gained more than 
15,000 signatures.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=13741

Protesters call bad 'Phorm' outside BT meeting
Phorm critic describes BT nightmare
Jeremy Kirk
In June 2007, Stephen Mainwaring of Weston Super Mare, noticed something 
wasn't quite right with his web browser.
The browser kept trying to contact a domain he was unfamiliar with. 
Mainwaring, who runs a website offering a subscription service for 
horse-racing statistics, thought he might have become infected with 
malicious software.
Fearing his customers' data could be compromised, Mainwaring called BT, his 
broadband service provider. BT concluded he must have had a virus.
"I started to turn white," Mainwaring said.
But the problem persisted, even after he wiped his hard discs clean and 
bought a new PC. Mainwaring started to investigate and found that the domain 
the browser was trying to contact belonged to 121Media, a company now called 
Phorm.
Phorm created a targeted advertising system called Webwise, which three UK 
ISPs so far have agreed to trial. Webwise monitors a person's web browsing 
in order to serve relevant ads.
Since advertisers will pay a premium to reach customers that fit a certain 
profile, ISPs employing target ad systems would get a cut of the revenue.
Phorm says the system does not retain personal information, but UK privacy 
activists question whether the system violates wiretapping regulations. A 
similar debate is ongoing in the US concerning the company NebuAd, which is 
marketing a similar system.
BT along with Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media plan to trial Webwise. But 
BT has further aggravated privacy activists after it secretly tested Webwise 
on 18,000 subscribers over a two-week period in September and October 2006.
Most people didn't notice the test. But Mainwaring did, along with 15 to 20 
other people who complained through customer service channels.
Mainwaring was one of several people who passed out leaflets about Webwise 
yesterday outside the London venue for BT's annual meeting. The calm protest 
was intended to raise awareness of the technology with BT shareholders, as 
well as press the UK government to investigate whether BT violated 
wiretapping regulations.
The UK has been fuzzy over which government agency has jurisdiction over 
investigating the trial, said Alexander Hanff, a law student who has written 
a dissertation about how BT may have violated the law. Hanff said it appears 
the City of London police have the right to investigate if they choose, and 
he planned to provide them with his dissertation, as well as other materials 
regarding the secret BT trial.
Phorm also appears to be drawing more political attention. A peer in the 
House of Lords, Sue Miller attended the protest. Miller said she planned on 
Thursday to press Home Office Undersecretary of State for Security and 
Counterterrorism Alan West for more clarification on ISPs and interception 
regulations.
Miller said BT officials visited her on Monday and assured her the Webwise 
system complies with the law.
Nonetheless, some ISPs, both in the US and UK, are steering clear of 
targeted advertising systems for fear of losing customers.
"The real reason I don't touch Phorm is because it's illegal," said Jason 
Clifford, who runs an ISP called the UK Free Software Network. "I think it 
it's going to be a very poor return on investment."

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/28/anti_drm_protest_at_apple_stores_verizon_on_iphone_3gs_impact.html

Monday, July 28, 2008
Anti-DRM protest at Apple stores; Verizon on iPhone 3G's impact
By Aidan Malley
Published: 06:45 PM EST
Open-source campaigners are planning a flood campaign against Apple retail 
they believe will pressure the iPhone maker to open up its devices. Verizon, 
meanwhile, only believes the iPhone 3G has had slight impact on its sales, 
and Doom's creator wants to create an exclusive iPhone game.

DRM opponents hope to overwhelm Apple retail

In a symbolic gesture, the Free Software Foundation plans a new campaign, 
nicknamed the Apple Challenge, that it thinks will pressure Apple into 
opening its software code.

The organization is asking supporters to book a Genius Bar appointment at an 
Apple retail store on Friday or Saturday and ask the technicians questions 
about the company's broader corporate policy regarding iPhone 3G and its 
software under the belief that any copy-protected hardware or software is 
"defective."

Among the questions several few technicians would be likely to answer, 
including those asking why Apple doesn't allow iPhone developers to publish 
source code, why Apple continues to sell protected iTunes music, and why the 
company doesn't support open media formats like FLAC, Ogg Theora, and Ogg 
Vorbis.

The questionnaire goes so far as to suggest that closed-source software for 
GPS would allow Apple to track customers' locations without their knowledge.

Although Apple currently uses and promotes some open-source software through 
Mac OS X, the company has more often refrained from a similar policy with 
its portable devices. Chief executive Steve Jobs, however, has endorsed 
cross-platform formats but has only mentioned AAC and MP3, which still 
require licensing and are patented in a way that makes open-source 
modification impossible.

Verizon downplays iPhone 3G's effects

iPhone 3G's rollout has had just a "minimally short-term impact" on 
Verizon's sales, if the company's statements during its quarterly results 
call prove true.

Though it stops short of handing out any statistics, the cellular service 
provider alludes to the Apple phone making a small dent in Verizon sales in 
the days following its launch but that it was "disproportionately less" than 
the company's market share, which is smaller than that of exclusive iPhone 
provider AT&T.

The company also fires a direct jab at AT&T, noting that its wireless 
strategy doesn't depend on "any one device" and claims the iPhone actually 
spurred a rush of smartphone sales at Verizon.

id Software's Carmack eager to develop iPhone exclusive

John Carmack, the co-founder of game development house id Software, says his 
company is planning to develop an iPhone-exclusive title that would show off 
the abilities of the platform, Forbes says.

While it's too early to reveal details, the game would be based on an 
existing storyline from the company such as Doom, Quake, or Wolfenstein but 
would be a "graphical tour de force" that shows off the visual prowess of 
the iPhone and iPod touch's PowerVR hardware.

"The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or 
Xbox," Carmack says. "The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot 
higher."

Apple's handhelds also have considerably more storage than the cellphones id 
Software has developed for so far, with many games coming in over 10MB while 
a typical mobile game is often 300KB.

At present, his only immediate lament is not having time to create a launch 
game. "I really regret not having something at launch," he says.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43510

MEDIA: Olympics Draw Harvest of Online Protests
By Lynette Lee Corporal - Asia Media Forum*

Beijing's Ritan Park, designated for protests with official permission, saw 
no banners or slogan shouting.

Credit:Antoaneta Bezlova/IPS

BANGKOK, Aug 11 (IPS) - Say goodbye to the usual slogan-shouting and 
banner-carrying protest actions, because one does not even have to be 
anywhere near China to push a mix of causes -- from Tibet and Burma to 
Darfur. Online creativity is the name of the game.

While the spectacular 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies got underway, 
many groups are finding and using innovative ways online in which to express 
their displeasure about China's socio-political and economic policies.

One such group is the Candle4Tibet.org (www.Candle4Tibet.org), an online 
campaign that encouraged people to light a candle for Tibet in homes or in 
public places on Aug. 7 at 9 p.m. The campaign began in India and went 
around the world until the evening of Aug. 8, the opening of the Beijing 
Olympics.

Organiser David Califa said, in a telephone interview from Israel, where he 
is based, that there were more than 500,000 responses to the call. More than 
3,900 people have also registered for Candle4Tibet's social networking site 
(www.Candle4Tibet.ning.com), an online support group for members.

These are the same people, Califa said, who invited "more than 100,000,000 
to join the vigil worldwide".

"All this started from zero. It's not an organised campaign and we have no 
funds to speak of. This is really a people's protest, because it's from the 
people themselves, which makes it all the more special," the retired 
investment banker said in a phone interview.

About four months ago, Califa was just one among the 75 million members of 
the popular social networking site Facebook. Then, Califa thought of 
rallying people to support the call of freedom for Tibet, which the Chinese 
state has occupied since 1951 despite campaigns for autonomy or 
independence.

>From a sprinkling of fellow Facebook contacts, word got out quickly and 
spread even outside Facebook. Califa then worked on creating a dedicated 
website for this campaign.

More than 150 countries are represented on the site, mainly the United 
States, India, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and South 
America. A quick check of the site also reveals a sprinkling of members from 
Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and a few more from 
Taiwan and Japan.

Asked about the seemingly small number of Asian countries figuring on the 
site, Califa said, "It could be a language problem, Internet access, or the 
circles of social network are not big enough."

There is, however, a Japanese group in the network that helped out in 
translating all materials into Japanese.

"I think one of the reasons why not a lot of Asians seem to be paying 
attention to this campaign is because China is a 'big brother' of sorts in 
this region," said a Thai activist who gave her name as Arsure. Open 
opposition to China would be to invite 'economic disaster' for any country, 
she added.

Human rights advocates have criticised other countries' seeming inaction and 
unwillingness to question China's policies on Darfur, Burma and Tibet.

Two other websites that have also launched protests against the Chinese 
government are the French-based Reporters Without Borders’ (www.rsf.org) and 
Darfur Olympics (www.darfurolympics.org/).

A few hours before the start of the Olympics, RSF launched a virtual 
demonstration site complete with a choice of placards. This, the group said, 
is to protest against the repression of press freedom and to demand the 
release of around 100 journalists, cyber dissidents and bloggers. As of Aug 
9, cyber-demonstrators numbered to more than 13,500.

A person who decides to participate in virtual protest is taken to an image 
of China's famed Bird's Nest Olympic stadium online, and invited add his 
protest with the aid of slogans such as 'Yes to sport, no to oppression', 
'No Olympic Games without freedom', and 'I boycott the Olympic opening 
ceremony!'

The Darfur Olympics site, meanwhile, is a week-long protest that is aimed at 
keeping the Darfur issue afloat during the Games. Its call is simple: for 
China to "stop sponsoring the genocide in Darfur".

More than 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have 
been displaced by Sudan, which enjoys close trade relations with China. 
Critics have continuously condemned China's oil purchases, the earnings of 
which, they say, are used to fund the Janjaweed militia and buy weapons 
again from China.

Among the site's features is an alternative opening ceremony to the Beijing 
Olympics featuring images of Darfur's children in refugee camps, a week-long 
webcast by leading Darfur activist and Dream-for-Darfur chair Mia Farrow. It 
appeals to Olympic viewers to change channels whenever they broadcast 
commercials by the 15 corporate Olympic sponsors that refused to speak up 
about the Darfur situation.

"I hope people will watch our daily broadcasts to hear from the people of 
Darfur who have suffered for so long," said Farrow in a statement.

In a slightly different take on the protest actions, the global web movement 
Avaaz.org launched yet another campaign for peace and freedom through its 
'Olympics Handshake' online campaign.

Echoing the constant message of the 14th Dalai Lama about meaningful 
dialogue, Avaaz -- which means 'voice' in many Asian, Middle Eastern and 
Eastern European languages -- goes a step further by encouraging people to 
virtually shake hands with everyone worldwide.

Inspired by the handshake that the Dalai Lama gave to every person he met 
during one of his visits to London, the handshake campaign now has more than 
94,900 supporters, only two days after it was posted.

The campaign's goal is for the Beijing Olympics to encourage China to open a 
meaningful dialogue on Tibet, as well as to deal with the Burma and Darfur 
issues. They also want to emphasise that these ongoing campaigns are not 
'anti-Chinese', something that Califa also agrees with.

"We are not against the people of China and the Olympics. Some of us even 
have compassion for the leaders of China," said Califa.

For Califa and other protesters, it is all about the very basic right of 
freedom, including freedom from fear. "There are a lot of people in the free 
world who are afraid of China. A lot of companies are afraid of China. They 
put profit first before values, and it's absurd," he said. "But we are not 
afraid and this is just the beginning."

(*This story was written for the Asia Media Forum coordinated by IPS 
Asia-Pacific)

(END/2008)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/off-the-field/protesters-hack-into-olympics-website/2008/08/07/1217702194013.html

Protesters paint site orange
August 7, 2008 - 9:01AM
It's been claimed that hackers have tapped into the official website of the 
Beijing Olympic Games to colour some of its headlines orange in support of a 
protest against human rights abuse in China.
Danish human rights activist and artist Jens Galschiot is pushing people to 
get involved in The Color Orange project ahead of and during the Olympic 
Games, which start tomorrow.
He wants athletes, politicians, journalists and others in Beijing to display 
something orange, and is urging people around the world to hang up orange 
cloth strips on sculptures, lampposts, fences and other visible places in 
cities as a way of criticising China over its human rights abuses.
Mr Galschiot said he received an anonymous phone call claiming that hackers 
had changed the headlines of the official Chinese Olympic website into 
orange, seemingly in support of the project.
"I was rather sceptical about the message but I've checked the website ... 
actually the headlines are orange," he said in a statement on his website 
thecolororange.net.
"But I dare not say whether hackers or a humanitarian-minded web designer 
are the originators.
"These hackers must be exceptionally skillful if they have managed to make 
this small but very powerful change of the official Olympic Games websites."
But, Mr Galschiot added, he did not defend unlawful hacking of websites.
The official website en.beijing2008.cn had its main headlines in blue this 
morning, but smaller headings were all in orange, as were some other 
elements of the design.
Australian Olympic officials were not available for comment this morning.

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-08-25-011-35-NW-LL

Protest Against Software Patents - Candle Light Vigil at Bangalore
Aug 25, 2008, 00 :02 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (567 reads)
(Other stories by Sandip Bhattacharya)

"The issue was to send out a message against vested interests in the 
government and industry who are clandestinely trying to legalise software 
patents in India even after existing legislation disallowed it."